Native Horse Trainer Accesses Credit, Builds Business with Help from Native CDFI

Stanford Addison is an enrolled member of the Northern Arapahoe Tribe living on the Wind River Reservation in central Wyoming. He is known by some as a “horse whisperer” although it’s a label he doesn’t much care for.  He simply does what comes natural to him—taming wild horses.  It’s a skill he developed as a boy, handed down from his grandfather to his father to him and his brothers. Now Stan is sharing his horsemanship skills with others at a horse camp he runs for children and adults who want to learn how to tame and ride unbroken horses.  This may not seem so remarkable until you realize that Stanford Addison is in a wheelchair.

At the age of 20, Stan was involved in a serious motor vehicle accident which left him paralyzed.  Up until then, he and his siblings grew up breaking horses, working around ranches all of their lives.  After the accident, Stan thought his life was over. How can a horse wrangler break horses from a wheelchair? He came to realize that there were other ways he could work with horses. He established the Stanford Addison Ranch, a non-profit organization whose mission is to promote respect amongst all beings, preserve traditional Arapahoe spiritual and cultural practices, and to enrich the lives of at-risk youth of the Northern Arapahoe and other peoples.  However, Stan needed capital to get his venture off the ground, which wasn’t an easy task. “The banks wouldn’t lend me anything,” he says. “I looked into other lending places, even out of state, but they had so many restrictions and the interest rates were too high. They weren’t interested in me as a person.” Then a relative told him about the Wind River Development Fund (WRDF); a private, community development financial institution (CDFI) that provides financial and client-support opportunities to stimulate economic development on the Wind River Indian reservation. “They were different. They listened to me,” says Addison. “They offer assistance to make your dreams come true, not try and tell you what you can and cannot do.”

“There was no where else to for him to go except WRDF,” says executive director, Lisa Wagner. “Many of Stan’s medical expenses were on his credit report but we looked at his cash flow and what his needs were.” Some of those needs included building up his corrals, a horse trailer, and having a reliable truck. “We made his first loan in May of 2006, and he has had two more since then. He paid each one off and he’s never late. We really enjoy working with him.”

What makes WRDF different than mainstream financial institutions? “We are very relationship-based,” says Wagner. “We spend a lot of time with our clients that banks don’t necessarily do. We assess our clients’ strengths, we provide them with other resources, we have more flexibility in how we can lend.”  One of those resources was Vocational Rehabilitation. Wind River Development Fund introduced them to Stan and they were able to help him build a web site, provide a computer and internet access, and they are currently working on building a custom saddle for him so he can ride again. WRDF has also assisted Stan with his non-profit reports to the IRS, market research, and finding potential funders for his non-profit.

“I would still be struggling if it wasn’t for the Wind River Development Fund,” says Addison. “They provided me a place where I could get financial assistance to buy the things I needed and I know I can rely on them for the future. It gives me a sense of security.”

For more information about Stanford Addison and the Wind River Development Fund, visit:

www.stanaddison.com
www.wrdf.org